More than 140 firefighters swarmed a two-alarm scrapyard fire in East Flatbush shortly after 10 p.m. on Monday, cutting through a metal wall to reach flames that had spread into an adjacent lot. It took nearly two hours for crews to get the blaze under control, and by just before midnight, the fire at 5811 Preston Court was no longer raging. No injuries were reported.
Firefighters responded to the junkyard fire at 5811 Preston Court, according to Brooklyn Paper, which reported crews encountered smoke and flames rising behind a tall metal wall when they arrived. Unable to get a direct line on the fire, firefighters cut through the wall to access the lot next door, then pulled in tower ladders to shoot water into the burning junkyard. A separate search-result snippet from the Canarsie Courier described a warehouse fire at 5885 Preston Court, a discrepancy in the reported address that has not been resolved.
The scrapyard belongs to Brooklyn Resource Recovery, a metal recycling facility that buys construction scraps, old appliances, end-of-life vehicles, and more, per the company's own website as cited by the outlet. The FDNY confirmed there were no injuries, but it was not immediately clear what caused the fire or how much damage it caused. Brooklyn Resource Recovery did not respond to a request for comment.
A Block With a Long History of Fires
Preston Court is a heavily industrial three-block stretch south of Ralph Avenue lined with junkyards and other industrial businesses, and it has been plagued by near-constant fires in recent years, the outlet's report notes. Since the summer of 2021, at least six fires have sprung up at scrap yards and auto body shops on the block, with the most recent reported less than two months before Monday's fire. A separate Brooklyn Paper report put the count differently, saying a July 13 fire was at least the twelfth reported on the short industrial block in the previous six years, with most concentrated on the single block between East 56th Street and Ralph Avenue.
Industry trade outlet Waste360 reported that a fire at Brooklyn Resource Recovery on Sept. 26 marked the third fire on the company's property that year, following two additional fires on July 13 and Aug. 2. A Notify NYC alert tied to Monday's fire warned of road closures, delays, and a heavy presence of emergency personnel on Preston Court at Ralph Avenue because of FDNY activity, according to Notify NYC.
Echoes of Past Blazes on the Same Strip
The block's fire history stretches back years. A 2021 fire at S&A Scrapyard, located a few doors down from Brooklyn Resource Recovery, was believed at the time to have been caused by an electric scooter battery, the outlet's reporting states. A separate account of that September 2021 blaze attributed it to an e-bike battery that exploded in a pile of scrap iron, and said the two-alarm fire at S&A Scrap Iron & Metal left one firefighter with minor injuries before it was brought under control a little after 10:30 p.m.
Fires have also frequently occurred at S&A's much-larger neighbor, Brooklyn Resource Recovery, where automobiles are junked and shredded, according to the earlier Brooklyn Paper report. Separately, PIX11 reported that the Brooklyn Resource Recovery site had a large fire more than 10 years ago and another the previous year. As of Monday night, the cause and damage from the latest fire remained undetermined, leaving residents on the industrial strip to wonder, once again, what sparked the flames.
